AHC: Avoid metrification by non-Romance countries

JJohnson

Banned
The challenge is, at any point between 1700 and 1900, have the non-Romance countries avoid metrification, and if possible, base their units off each other (such as the Holy Roman Empire basing its inch off the English imperial inch, Sweden basing its foot off that of the British Empire, etc.), such that by 1900, only Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, their colonies use metric units, and possibly the Balkan countries and maybe Belgium. The United Kingdom and its Empire and Dominions, and former colonies continue to use imperial units, possibly along with Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, and Switzerland at least still using traditional units.
 
I cant imagine why anyone would not want to use the metric system :confused: I live in the US and prefer working with it. English measurements are like so 18th Century :p
 
The British Empire was big enough for itself and didn't meddle enough with the Continent to be seriously affected by its versatile measurement systems, therefore it could afford to hold onto their own system and they had quite a headstart in 1824, most of the world only streamlined measurement systems later and when it did, there was already a handy metric system. The fact that North America is dominated by solely British settler colonies or their respective daughter states helped its grip there.

In the end, it would have been a pain in the ass to determine how the traditional units should be compromised and buy whose standard. Therefore it was easier to just adopt the metric system, it's equally alien to everybody and its decimal.
 
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